FLODOARD (894–966), French chronicler, was born at
Epernay, and educated at Reims in the cathedral school which
had been established by Archbishop Fulcon (822–900). As
canon of Reims, and favourite of the archbishops Herivaeus
(d. 922) and Seulfus (d. 925), he occupied while still young an
important position at the archiepiscopal court, but was twice
deprived of his benefices by Heribert, count of Vermandois, on
account of his steady opposition to the election of the count's
infant son to the archbishopric. Upon the final triumph of
Archbishop Artold in 947, Flodoard became for a time his chief
adviser, but withdrew to a monastery in 952, and spent the
remaining years of his life in literary and devotional work. His
history of the cathedral church at Reims (Historia RemensisEcclesiae) is one of the most remarkable productions of the 10th
century. Flodoard had been given charge of the episcopal
archives, and constructed his history out of the original texts,
which he generally reproduces in full; the documents for the
period of Hincmar being especially valuable. The Annales
which Flodoard wrote year by year from 919 to 966 are doubly
important, by reason of the author's honesty and the central
position of Reims in European affairs in his time. Flodoard's
poetical Works are of hardly less historical interest. The long
poem celebrating the triumph of Christ and His saints was called
forth by the favour shown him by Pope Leo VII., during whose
pontificate he visited Rome, and he devotes fourteen books to
the history of the popes.

Flodoard's works were published in full by J. P. Migne (PatrologiaLatina, vol. 135); a modern edition of the Annales is the one edited
by P. Lauer (Paris, 1906). For bibliography see A. Molinier, Sourcesde l'histoire de France (No. 932).